Hello Tuesday!Special thanks to Hagelrat for letting me move from Mondays to Tuesdays for the weekly (some would say sporadic, occasional, dare I say even rarely at this point) dose of Geek Monkey Reviews. Although right now in New York it's just after 7:00 PM so I can take some comfort that I'm making my Monday deadline this week.
Although, to be honest, I'm making it with an author that I know from past experience isn't too popular around these parts. In fact, one of the things I wondered about after reading Stephen King's latest 1,000 page novel Under the Dome is how he became so popular, especially in a global sense? Each one of his works is so deeply rooted in a kitschy Americanism that is particular to King's own experiences being raised in New England it can be disconnecting to American audiences.
Let me point out, before continuing, that I am apologetically a fan of Stephen King. Even so, Under the Dome more clearly shows King's age and small town peculiarities as a fault rather than a gift to the storytelling. Outdated slang, references to culture and technology that are recent but not so recent to be current all go towards making Under the Dome something that reads like lightning, but leaves no taste afterward.
Started in the 70s but left off for bigger and better novels, Under the Dome is the story of a mysterious invisible barrier that completely isolates the town of Chester's Mill from the rest of the world. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out - and that includes air, which is getter harder to come by as the days go on. It's a chance for King to put people under a microscope and observe how a town tears itself apart. Chester's Mill is filled with your typical King characters - there's the blow-hard Town Councilman, the corrupt and lazy police, the psychotic dude, the devout and insane church leader - they're people we've come to know in dozens of other King books, but here they feel just as tired and listless as the air trapped in the Dome.
The truth behind what's happening to the town is an enormous joke - you probably won;t see it coming, but that's because you don't think King would ever do something so silly. He does, and while Under the Dome was a fun enough read, it doesn't have any staying power, and feels like a big disappointment after some of King's later, more mature work.
12 comments:
I keep telling you lot I don't hate King, nor do I dispute his title as a horror legend, but I have found the endings of the books i've read disapointing endings, and it sounds like this did too.
I was speaking more toward the readers than you, who have also been (rightly) critical of some of his stuff. And yeah, the ending to this one is painful!
Ha, well y'know, I have a cold and it's making me oversensitive and paranoid. I am convinced everyone hates me. ;)
Oh dear, sorry to hear that, except, not really because now I don't feel at all compelled to read it. :)
I'd heard the ending was a "What?!"
I've often wondered what traumatic, small-town event King suffered as a child...
Hagelrat - no worries!
Alex hahaha. Never occured to me but I like it.
Chris - hugs.
I don't know that I've ever been pleased with a King ending (Straub too, no wonder they're pals), but some are far more horribly painful than others. I gave up reading King years ago -- it wasn't the folksy references from the rich man in the mansion aspects so much as the lesbians who always died and women who could only live through their men. He tried to address the latter after many criticisms with characters like Dolores Clairborne. See, he wanted to say, look I made her strong (just the latest in a long line of people who mistakenly think 'strong female character' only means Buffy or Xena, instead of fully developed and not defined by a relationship to a man). But her whole life was still in reaction to a man's life -- she was an appendage.
Life's too short to read another King novel. However, I have enjoyed his non-fiction on writing and on the genre, though even there, FFS get an EDITOR.
Kate. This is why you rock.
[blushes]
Well to be honest I am not botherd by his his small town...ness. Because half the American culture refrences are lost on me anyway.It talk me years before I realised a Fawcett was a tap. Any way every writter produces a bad book. However I do agree King's have been going down hill recently.
Actually, a Fawcett is an Angel...
HA! Get it? You know, Farrah Fawcett was in Charlie's Angels?
I am very tired...
lol Chris I can tell. I am always tired.
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